Somehow, Meghan Markle Has Gotten Wrapped Up in Some Very Niche Dog Drama

Sure, the royal wedding was about as romantic of a spectacle you can get, but that doesn't mean there aren't any drawbacks to becoming the Duchess of Sussex. For Meghan Markle, becoming part of the royal family has also meant she's had to make a few sacrifices—leaving behind not only her career in acting, but also one of her one of the two "loves" she's said "mean[s] the absolute world" to her: her rescue Labrador-shepherd mix, who's named Bogart.

As for the other one of the two "loves" in Markle's life, she actually wasn't referring to her husband, Prince Harry, but her other rescue dog: Guy, a beagle who has in fact lived in two different countries before adding a third to his roster now that he's moved into Kensington Palace. Before he was making headlines for hitching a pre-wedding ride with the Queen—a heartwarming but not exactly true story, but we'll get to that later—Guy was living alone in the woods of Kentucky, and then a kill shelter. A few days before he was set to be euthanized, though, the ultimate saviors—a group of charitable Canadians—stepped in, kicking off Guy's newfound lifestyle of getting the royal treatment.

Upon hearing of his situation, the nonprofit A Dog’s Dream Rescue in Ontario, Canada, found a "group of dog lovers" willing to take one-hour turns driving the pup all the way up to Toronto. Before long, Markle met him at "a normal run-of-the-mill adoption event." (As A Dog's Dream Rescue later put it: "How is that for a rags to riches story from a good ole Kentucky beagle!")

The same can actually be said for the much less high-profile Bogart, when you consider that it wasn't Markle, who didn't have too high of a profile as an actress at that point, but none other than Ellen DeGeneres who was actually really the one behind his adoption. While at an apparently quite happening dog shelter, Markle casually ran into DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi. Though at that point, she wasn't acquainted with either of them, DeGeneres told Markle that she "had to rescue" Bogart, whom she'd been eyeing, going as far as tapping on the window right before she'd left to make sure Markle would follow through.("It’s sort of like if Oprah tells you to do something," she later said. "I’m sitting there holding him and she’s like, 'Have you thought of a name for him yet?' And I said, 'Well, I think I’d name him Bogart,' and she’s like, 'You’re taking the dog home.'")

Now, if there's anything we've learned from the whole saga that was Lena Dunham and her dog Lamby—which prove that even feuds with Brooklyn dog shelters can dominate the news—it's that behind every adorable, ultraliked Instagram of a celebrity pet, things can actually be much more complicated than they seem. The fact that that the widely circulated, adorable story that dog-lover Queen Elizabeth II rode to the wedding with her new buddy, Guy, for example, wasn't exactly true in the end—though there's no denying that the Queen and Markle have certainly been bonding over their love of pups. By the time Prince Harry and Markle announced their engagement in November, the latter had already met the Queen a couple of times—which, of course, also meant that she'd met her famous pack of corgis and dorgis, who, according to Prince Harry, took to her "straight away." ("I’ve spent the last 33 years being barked at. This one walks in, absolutely nothing…" he said, adding that they wagged their tails and laid at her feet the whole time.)

Now that the last of the Queen's corgis has died, marking the end of an eight-decade era, it's up to Guy to carry on the royal tradition—hopefully without some of the attack incidents that both the Queen and Princess Anne's hounds have gotten involved in in the past. Still, things haven't been going entirely smoothly; given that the royal canine community went as far to intensely scrutinize the size of the ears of the dog who rode with the Queen to see if they matched up with the size of Guy's, it's not exactly surprising that they've found another bone to pick—not with Guy, but with Bogart, even though he's all the way back in Toronto. A quick look at the comments being left on the Facebook page of even the benevolently run A Dog's Dream Rescue in particular shows just how vicious some are getting toward Markle—and even towards the Prince, digging up photos of his infamous swastika incident:

She is leaving her other dog behind. Awful!!!!!😡

She dumped one and took the beagle thereby abandonding [sic] Bogart AND separating two best friends. No doubt Guy will spend more time with whoever she hires to babysit him in England but won't ever see his friend again. Personally I wouldn't even allow to to [sic] adopt a pet rock.

Leaving one behind ...I would love to know the reason.....it is disgusting in my eyes....poor pup lost his mom and best friend

Of course, there are also plenty defending her decision to leave Bogart behind, repeatedly pointing out that her vet reportedly advised her that Bogart's age meant he wasn't up for the move and that staying in Toronto would definitely be best for him. Indeed, it's practically making for a war between the former camp and the latter, many of whose comments read like this one: "Her second dog is older and has health issues serious enough that travel and quarantine would be risky. She left him with very good friends that often cared for him whenever she was away for work." (Plus, she might be able to see him again soon if the rumors of a royal honeymoon in Canada turn out to be true.)

Realistically, it was only a matter of time before Markle would find herself in the midst of some drama, which is thankfully much less dramatic than that of pretty much every other member of her family. Still, no matter where you stand when it comes to Bogart, it definitely seems to be true that Markle has made sure Guy is living the life. And, by the way, she's not the first American-turned-royal to do so: Decades earlier, Grace Kelly made a similar—though much more extravagant—move when it was her time to move across the seas to become a royal. When she relocated from Hollywood to Monaco, she brought along not only 80 pieces of luggage, but also her Weimaraner, her Great Dane, and her poodle, the latter of whom also had a celebrity origin story, as it was given to her by Cary Grant.